First Cup of Coffee - June 24, 2019

A surprise guest today in the form of a neighbor chat. Also more about Sage Walker and Jim Sorenson, mentioned in yesterday's blog post, Do You Need a Critique Group – Or Something ELSE? Plus thoughts on science fiction, etc. 

Transcript

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Jeffe 0:01

Good morning everyone. This is Jeffe Kennedy . I'm here with my first cup of coffee. Mmm-quick way to get the day going. Of course my day's been going for awhile , but you know what I mean. Um, what is today? Today is Monday, June 24th, the last full week of June. How did that happen? I don't know... Time flies when you're having fun. Right? It seems like time flies even when you're not having fun. Maybe time just flies period. Let's see, it's a little breezy out, but not too bad. Yesterday was super windy, tumultuous windy. They say that the jet stream has been over us lately. So that's what's causing a lot of the bumpy winds. It's nice out here on the east side of the house. When I had Sage and Jim over on Saturday - I blogged about it yesterday - how Sage Walker and Jim Sorenson came over for Brunch on Saturday and we sat out in the grape arbor and it was beautiful weather for that. Just perfect. So that worked out well. And my mom asked me - because I wrote the blog post about how I don't have a critique group anymore, but socializing with other writers, talking about writing is big and important for me - she asked if Sage and Jim were writers. I mean, I link to stuff. I had a link to their Goodreads pages since that seems like a good neutral place to link for two people who don't have their own websites. But yeah, Sage had a book that came out in the 90s called I think Whiteout that was nominated for a big award and did very well. And she's also done a couple of stories in the Wildcards series with George RR Martin and other folks. But Sage is also a medical doctor and worked in an emergency room for many, many years in Taos and she kind of let the writing fall by the wayside, you know. She was a busy person and it wasn't most important thing to her. And then a while ago, I'm not sure exactly when this happened, but her agent is the same agent as George RR Martin's. And one of the editors at Tor asked Sage's agent, she said, how come sage has never written anything else for me? So at this point Sage was retired and she's decided, well she would write something. So she plotted out a five books series and the first one came out from tour called The Man in the Tree. And I have read and reviewed it. It came out a few years ago, a couple years ago . And I think it's a beautiful book. She's an exquisitely good writer and a meticulous writer, which means that she's a slow writer too. Those things sort of go hand in hand. But it's a wonderful story that's kind of a murder mystery that takes place on a generation ship. The ship is in orbit around the earth and they are days away from leaving. And these ships have very, very narrow windows. You can only, you know, everything has to line up exactly right. Only for narrow periods of time. So the ship is has been in construction for, I don't know how long, you know, like 50 or a hundred years or something. It's taken a long time. They've taken an asteroid and they've hollowed it out and they've created an ecosystem inside the asteroid so that people can live in it for generations until they get to the new destination because they don't have faster than light travel. So the people who get to be on the generation ship are very, very carefully selected. And there's been like this massive selection system for a long time. A lottery system, a lot of people want to get off of earth. Her future earth is in bad shape. So they are down to the final days, everybody's pretty well set and then they find this man murdered. So they know that they have a murderer on board and it's a little late to be figuring out that they have a murderer on board . So that's the premise of the story and it is a slow paced story and I think that it did not do as well in some circles as it might have because of that. You really have to sink into the, into the slower pace. Mom, you might like it. I can lend you my copy because it really is a beautifully written book and, and fascinating. I mean, she's really done an amazing job of creating this world. She started writing the second book, but she has not finished it partly because , she's not terribly interested cause her book didn't do that great. They also screwed up with her because they gave her a very military science fiction cover. And so the people who pick it up expected military science fiction and it's about 180 degrees from that and still be science fiction. So, you know, she's feeling like she doesn't have the same attention span to write that she used to and all of those things. And, and, and it's hard to think about doing it when, when there's not a crying desire for more. I think , uh, I wish she would because I think that, you know, very often with series, you know, it's such a true thing anymore that, you know, the series doesn't take off until the later books are out, but publishers just won't invest in that anymore for the most part. So , uh, so she's still happy to read for me and happy to discuss. And so she makes a really great person for me to bounce ideas off of for my new shiny, which is science fiction. She asks very good questions and brings up excellent points. So I love all of that about her. And then Jim, Jim Sorenson, is the guy that I was collaborating with for a while. We were working on that one book , which we've tabled for now because Sarah felt like we both needed to come out individually in science fiction before she could really sell the collaboration. I'm not sure if that was, I'm not sure our voices were meshing right. We had fun working together. I'm not sure the story was working. It certainly wasn't working for Sarah and she felt like we had worked it enough and needed to set it aside. And sometimes that just happens. But Jim comes out of this , um , Transformers background where he has a niche expert and everything, transformers, those are these toys and I don't know much about it really, but it's an incredible to see the things that he does. Um, those are the toys, you know, that they would be like a robot and then they would turn into a sports car and there has been this ever since they came out, I think in the 80s there is now like this, what was, what is that now 40 years? they might have come out in the 70s something like that. Anyway, decades and decades of spinoffs of various different toys and then there have been books and there was, you know, the movies that, you know, people like I think Hugh Jackman was in one and you know, like big blockbuster movies with the transformers and all over the world. You'll have comic books and all these things. So like recently, he was just showing us that he worked on this coffee table book that's a compilation of all of the Transformers art from over the years. And he helped put that together. And he was showing it to us and it's, it's beautiful. And it sells for, you know, like $50 and then $100 for a special edition that has a slip case and some other sparklies . And I, you know, I guess for this target market, for the people who love that kind of thing, they just gobble it up. And I guess he says when he goes to the transformer conventions, you know, everybody knows who he is. So he has this, he's fun because he comes from that different angle on science fiction, you know, he comes from that kind of , um, very action packed Transformerish entertainment side and is very smart, knows a lot about Scifi , and fantasy. So he has interesting things to say. Um, I would love it if we could get our collaboration to work. I don't know. I'd like to revisit that. So, so that's my long answer to the question that my mom had was, are they authors ? And yes, they are. So I worked yesterday, did my SFF seven blog post. So that's why I didn't podcast. But I'm sort of, I'm trying out this schedule of being able to take days off when David doesn't have a lot going on and working when he's working. So I worked yesterday, and I'll work today and then tomorrow we're going to go fishing. So it seems to be going okay. But I am losing track of what day it is. This um , feels like a Tuesday to me. Actually it felt like Thursday. I was thinking maybe it was Thursday. So definitely breaking up the weekend does a lot to change out how my life works. This lady at the end of the driveway wrestling with something there. I think she's fixing my lantern with her dog. She doesn't see me sitting here. That's why I went quiet. Oh No . What she's doing? She has her dog. They're looking at something. I wonder if I should pause and go talk to her. I will let her go for a little bit and see. Huh . She's just really crouching there . So, I did have little bit of a scare yesterday cause I'd had it on my list to check and see if we had our passports up to date in case we can go to Ireland in August for Worldcon. I figured I better check into that. So I went to our safe. Oh No . What she's doing. Should we go ask her? Let's go ask her. Everything okay?

Neighbor 13:10

Yeah, I was just g iving her water.

Jeffe 13:12

Oh, okay.

Neighbor 13:13

How are you today?

Jeffe 13:14

I'm good. How are you doing?

Neighbor 13:15

So pretty. And you're in the right clothes.

Jeffe 13:18

Oh yeah. Getting ready for it to warm up again. Right. Hi Sweetheart.

Neighbor 13:25

This is Chablis.

Jeffe 13:26

Like the wine? That's delightful.

Neighbor 13:29

Boss named her. And it's really funny because I have 32 years of sobriety. She's, but it was so funny. There's no other name for this dog. It's gotta be a wine, white wine,.

Jeffe 13:45

And she's a standard poodle.

Neighbor 13:47

She's, yes, she is, but she's a , I don't know if you've ever heard of a parte factor.

Jeffe 13:53

No.

Neighbor 13:53

Um, when she was born, she had amber on her ears and amber on all her toes.

Jeffe 14:02

Oh. But she's all white now.

Neighbor 14:04

In the old days they killed them.

Jeffe 14:07

Oh, oh, oh right. Cause they weren't like true to the breed.

Neighbor 14:11

Yes. And my sisters had , um, well one's kind of a like a Mocha latte or something, you know, that came from the same litter. And then my other sister got one, this black and white and g ray and it looked like he w as i n a tux. But both of those dogs are gone. She's lived beyond them.

Jeffe 14:46

Well, she's a beautiful lady. She looks like she's in great health.

Neighbor 14:50

She become so friendly. When she was little, she was so shy. If a person came up, she was just like a little kid and got behind me. Yeah. Well should I go. Are you walking?

Jeffe 15:04

No, no , no, no, no. I was just sitting over there having my coffee.

Neighbor 15:09

Yeah, she's fine. Everything's fine. Yeah. I live over on [street]. I just wanted to make sure she has some water. You too. Enjoy your walk.

Jeffe 15:28

So it's funny. It's a little interaction with the neighbor. I didn't want to tell her she was on the podcast. That's cause I thought she's like get all uncomfortable. It's a , I know it's probably against the law, that whole like recording somebody without their permission. Right. It probably is, but we don't know her name. We'll never know. All we know is Chablis. Chablis the standard poodle, white standard poodle. You would love her, Mom. Just like you always said you wanted. All right . So, oh, anyway, so I was telling the story about my about my rebel passport . I went to look for them and they were not in the safe where I always keep them always, always. Along with all of our important papers in our fireproof safe, which, you know, I've always thought if there's a wildfire that comes through here, which is a possibility, I would grab that safe. You know, I sort of have my mental list of things that I would grab and that safe is one of them. Well , it wouldn't do me a hell of a lot of good if the passports aren't in there, huh? So I thought, well what the hellbecause I'm generally pretty good about that sort of thing. And I put them away, you know, I put them away and I lock them up. So why wouldn't I have put them in there? And I'm thinking, I knew I had, I was trying to think when did we have last have them out cause we haven't traveled internationally for a long time. We went to Saint Martin two years ago. No, three years ago. Yeah, three years ago. So we haven't had them. You know, I think that was the last time we traveled internationally.I remember bringing them along on something because we were going to be like in San Diego and I thought well if there's a chance that we ended up over the Mexican border, we're going to want them. So I had them along then . And I know I took them with us when we had our driver's licenses renewed, which was two years ago. That was 2017 cause you know, New Mexico had to comply with the whole , um, you know, sort of the national, the federal license, driver's license requirements. That was when New Mexico finally had to switch over and everybody had to go get new drivers licenses and we had to bring so much ID, it was such a pain in the ass. And I brought our passports as one our confirmations of identity. So I was thinking, you know, so I was looking everywhere. Had I left them in a folder? Had I had them in a pile of papers? I kept getting this nudge of memory that they were in my bathroom drawer and I was thinking, well that's stupid. Why would they be in my bathroom drawer ? And I looked, I looked in a couple of my bathroom drawers, I moved a few things and there was nothing. And I, you know, I go back and look in the more logical places. I kept going back and looking in the safe, going through all the papers in there and thinking, you know, my just not seeing them. My expired passport was in there. Terribly helpful, Past Jeffe. So, but I kept thinking it's in the bathroom drawer. So I went and I dug under all of these like hairbands and stuff. And there they were. And I vaguely remember I was, cause I had called David and said, you don't know where they are. And he said, I don't think I ever had them. And I said, no, I know you. I doubt you did ever have them. Cause I know that's my job. I was wondering if I said to you something like, but I vaguely remember saying to him when we had somebody house sitting for us and we went on a trip that we didn't need the passports, but I pulled them out of the safe and I put them in the drawer so that in case something happened and we needed the passports that we could tell the house sitter where to find them. I remember at the time, it was very logical and I kind of remember telling David the story and he said, Oh yeah, that's really good thinking. Which I don't know if it was good thinking or not since it's been lost to time. They have been in that drawer ever since. So they would have burned down with the house. I suppose I could replace them, but it's like, I don't know . So anyway, I was very glad that I went through that panic now instead of like the day before or the morning where we like leaving for the airport when I went to get our passports from the safe and they weren't there. Um, and they are also good for both of us are good for several more years. So that's a relief. So that was my excitement. So, I'm going to get back to work on the new shiny. I got quite a bit done on it yesterday. I'm already past 10,000 words on it, so I need to probably not write tons more. But I'm going to finish this chapter and I already incorporated feedback from everyone . So that was really helpful. And then I'm going to send it off to Sarah and then I have to figure out what, I'm going to switch over to. I might ask Sarah if I can talk to her later this afternoon because I've got a few ideas of things. Um, I keep thinking maybe I'll work on The Fate of the Tala and just move it along farther. I might work on some nonfiction projects. I might work on that dark wizard story. That's kind of chewing at me, and I know there are fans out there, so. All right , well, I've chatted on long enough today, the conversation with Chablis and her person took a little bit of time, but you know, a little bit of variety for us here at First Cup of Coffee. And , uh , well I hope you all have an excellent Monday and I will talk to you tomorrow. Take care. Bye. Bye.